Kerala party poll postponement may hit Kesri

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The indefinite postponement of Congress organisational elections in Kerala may affect Sitaram Kesri's chances in the party presidential poll on June 9.

The decision, taken by pradesh returning officer Kishore Chandra Deo on Thursday afternoon, has rendered Kerala voteless. A majority of the state unit's 300 votes would have gone to Kesri, as the factions headed by working committee member A K Antony and Ramesh Chennithala had openly declared their support for him. However, the Karunakaran faction, which enjoys the support of a sizeable number of delegates, has not declared support for Kesri.

Meanwhile, the Antony faction believes it was the Sharad Pawar lobby (within the Karunakaran group), led by MP P C Chacko, that scuttled the election to spoil Kesri's chances.

Antony group spokesman M I Shanwas alleged that Chacko was Sharad Pawar's agent. It was the Karunakaran group's insistence not to recognise the Chennithala faction -- which had broken away from them in 1995 -- that forced Deo and AICC emissary Y Rajashekhara Moorthy to abandon the election.

Karunakaran's tough stance came as a shock to Deo and Moorthy -- they had resumed the poll process following Karunakaran's categorical assurance to the party president that he would cooperate.

After the first fiasco, Karunakaran insisted on Deo's replacement. He relented only after Kesri agreed to depute an emissary acceptable to him -- that was how Moorthy landed up in Thiruvananthapuram.

Karunakaran's refusal to acknowledge the third group eludes the comprehension of many, especially as former Congress president P V Narasimha Rao had involved it in party affairs. In fact, Karunakaran supporters had not raised any objection when the Chennithala faction was involved in appointing district returning officers.

Chennithala and Antony had been working in tandem to defeat Karunakaran and this, analysts say, might be the reason for the latter's rigid outlook.

Interestingly, the Karunakaran and Antony groups hold each other responsible for the present deadlock -- both say the other did it out of fear of defeat.

Organisational elections have never been a smooth affair in Kerala. In 1991, too, it had resulted in a full-fledged battle there.